1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a timekeeping device for counting a set time and displaying timekeeping information relating to the measured time.
2. Related Art
During soccer matches and other sports, for example, the referee must keep track of the playing time. In addition to measuring the preset playing time, stoppage time must also be measured in soccer matches in order to add compensatory time and adjust the time at which the match ends. Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2003-344568 teaches a stoppage time measuring device that can be used as a referee's stopwatch and can count stoppage time in addition to playing time. This stoppage time measuring device has a first timekeeping means for keeping time by subtracting (counting down) the cumulative time from when the timer is started at the beginning of a match, a second timekeeping means for keeping time by counting down the cumulative time from the start operation and stopping and starting timekeeping in response to a stop/restart operation when the match is interrupted and stoppage time is counted, a time difference calculation means for calculating the difference between the time kept by the first timekeeping means and the time kept by the second timekeeping means as the stoppage time, and a display means for displaying the times kept by the timekeeping means.
A problem with the stoppage time measuring device taught in JP-A-2003-344568 is that it can be difficult for the referee to know how long the match has lasted because the playing time is kept by counting down. This stoppage time measuring device also only handles counting and displaying the stoppage time, and cannot automatically increase the total playing time to account for stoppage time.